“Family doctors – caring for you for the whole of your life” highlights the crucial role of family doctors in providing lifelong care to patients throughout the various stages in life. It is with this theme that the Department of Health and our College co-organised the World Family Doctor Day Symposium on 11th May 2019 to deliberate on the unique role of family doctors in primary care in Hong Kong and to celebrate the World Family Doctor Day (19 May 2019) in advance.
Dr. Constance Chan, the Director of Health, remarked at the Symposium that family doctors were the key to well delivered primary care and that enhancement of primary care services was a major move in strengthening the overall health system in Hong Kong, which was also one of the major initiatives in the Government’s policy document, “Towards 2025: Strategy and Action Plan to Prevent and Control Non-Communicable Diseases in Hong Kong” published last year.
We were privileged to have three distinguished speakers sharing with us in the Symposium. Dr. Donald Li, the President of WONCA, gave us a keynote address on the challenges to family doctors in providing life-long care and reiterated the central role of family doctors in looking after patients in the community. Dr. Wanmie Leung, the Deputy Head of the Primary Healthcare Office of the Food and Health Bureau, updated the participants on the latest progress of setting up the District Health Centres (DHCs) which aimed at raising public awareness on personal health management, enhancing disease prevention and strengthening medical and rehabilitation services in the community through district-based medical-social collaboration and public-private partnership. Professor Martin Wong, the Convenor of the Advisory Group on Hong Kong Reference Framework for Care of Diabetes and Hypertension in Primary Care Settings, shared with the audience on the latest scientific evidence and the best practices on managing hypertension in the primary care setting.
Many thanks to the hard work by colleagues of our Public Education Committee and Board of Education, we also had a sneak preview of the video consisting of “thank you” messages received from our patients in celebration of the World Family Doctor Day. The video is now available at the HKCFP’s College website and FaceBook page.
All in all, the Symposium was a wonderful opportunity to acknowledge the central role of our specialty in the delivery of personal, comprehensive and continuing healthcare for our patients, in addition to celebrating the progress being made in family medicine and the special contributions of family doctors globally.
The WONCA Asia Pacific Region Conference 2019 also took place from 15th to 18th May 2019 at Kyoto, Japan. The Conference was hosted by the Japan Primary Care Association with the theme, “Medical generalists: bringing forward a brighter future”. Again, many colleagues from Hong Kong attended with presentations on a wide range of clinical topics relevant to primary care and family medicine practice. And they were excellent presentations too!
By the way, our own 32nd Conjoint Fellowship Conferment and Diploma Presentation Ceremony 2019 and the 30th Dr. Sun Yat Sen Oration were held on 9th June 2019 at the HKAM building. Let us come together to congratulate and celebrate with our new Fellows and Diplomates!
Dr. David V K CHAO
President